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Pierre succeeds at baseball the old-fashioned way

It wasn't that hot on June 21.

Juan Pierre finished the first half of the Phillies' season hitting .307, second on the team. (Matt Slocum/AP)
Juan Pierre finished the first half of the Phillies' season hitting .307, second on the team. (Matt Slocum/AP)Read more

It wasn't that hot on June 21.

Only about 110 steamy degrees on the engineered turf at Citizens Bank Park.

The kind of heat that prompts authorities to warn the elderly to seek shelter.

The Phillies' second-oldest player, 34-year-old Juan Pierre, crouched in the withering sun.

His 68-year-old manager, Charlie Manuel, stood behind the batting cage, watching.

It was 4 hours before game time.

They seemed to appreciate the heat.

Really, they just appreciated the chance to be in it.

It was early hitting, Manuel's favorite part of the day. He always watches it. Most years, Manuel sees young players intent on impressing the manager; an occasional veteran working out a kink or two; and maybe an injured player getting in his prescribed work.

Pierre spent 45 minutes simply keeping the edge of his bunting game sharp.

Like cotton and tobacco, the cash crops that built the American South where Pierre and Manuel were raised, the old men thrived in the heat.

"I wouldn't be out here if I was playing every day," Pierre lied.

Pierre has started 59 of the Phillies' 87 games, heading into the weekend, and played in 74. He is, effectively, an everyday player.

No matter.

"He's always here first," Manuel said.

Pierre loves his job.

Even if no one loves him.

After hitting .279 and scoring 80 runs in 158 games for the White Sox last season, Pierre could not find a major league job this season. The Phillies signed him to a minor league deal as bench insurance.

Pierre entered the Colorado series hitting .307, second on the team. He had stolen 20 bases, tops on the club, and was caught three times. His six sacrifice bunts led the team, and his four triples tied him with Jimmy Rollins for the team lead . . . with 107 fewer at-bats.

Manuel loves the long ball, but he loves baseball, period. Pierre's brand of small ball makes Manuel gush.

"He made our team in spring training, and he was out there first every day, too," Manuel said. "He appreciates every day he's in the big league. He knows what being in the big leagues is. He sets an example for what a major leaguer should be."

For a 37-win team with a $170 million payroll, you would think more players would follow the example of a guy making 800 grand.

Pierre generally gets in his extra work without a regular in sight.

"I'm a guy it doesn't come easy for. I have to work at it," he said. "I'm a decent bunter, because I worked at it. I have to practice it. It's not just rolling out of bed for me. Some guys think they can do it. I'm not that one. That's the only way I get that edge.

"That's how I've lasted this long. Every year they say, 'He can't throw. He can't hit. He can't run anymore.' I keep chugging along. I think it's due to the fact that I'm prepared."

The thing is, Pierre never could throw. Not really. Not playing centerfield for the Marlins, where he won a World Series in 2003 and was named the team's most valuable player for the season. The bad left wing is one more reason to devalue his valuable tools.

At 5-11 and 175 chiseled pounds, Pierre has 17 home runs in 13 seasons. Between steroids, human growth hormones and sabermatricians, Pierre had no chance.

"I was right through the whole steroid age. I was there at its height," Pierre said - though he realizes purists with calculators consider him a dinosaur, too.

"With all the computers, the cybergenics [sabermetrics], whatever they do, I think I rate the lowest possible in those things. The things I do don't show up in box scores. Sacrifice bunting doesn't make any sense to do. They don't look at the guy going first to third or taking that extra bag."

In fact, Pierre's sabermetric WAR-wins above replacement, the gold standard of metrics - stands at 1.4 this season.

Which, according to one pocket-protected website, rates him as a "scrub."

If Pierre has supplanted Shane Victorino as the Phillies' No. 2 hitter, what does that make the Flyin' Hawaiian? Toe cheese?

About an hour after Pierre sweated through his triple-digit bunting session, he was out in leftfield during batting practice. There, he took fly ball after fly ball, always sprinting to the spot, setting and throwing, never taking one millisecond off.

"You see him out there in the outfield working on his defense. That's who he is. He loves to play the game, and he wants to play it the right way," Manuel said. "His attitude is off the chart. His passion shows. He's very serious about his work and his game."

Even if nobody is very serious about him. He made more than $50 million, leads active players with 574 stolen bases . . . but he did make seven errors in the outfield last season, and was caught stealing 17 times in 44 tries.

Still . . . a minor league deal?

"I wasn't overly shocked that I had to do it. I knew at some point maybe it would happen. For it to happen as early as it did, was kind of crazy," Pierre said. I know how the game is going. People don't take too much stock in what I do. That's just how it is. Nobody cares about guys bunting and running the bases."

Except, you know, those Giants and Cardinals.

Who won the last two World Series bunting and running the bases.

Contact Marcus Hayes at hayesm@phillynews.com.

For recent columns, go to www.philly.com/MarcusHayes.